==== Introduction ====

There are times when you need to know what the AUTO_ACTION environmental parameter on Alpha is defined.  How would you find out?

==== Details ====

First it's important to understand what the three options are for this parameter:

  * HALT is clear; whenever the machine gets to the console prompt, it stays there until someone enters a command.

  * BOOT indicates that after a power cycle or system crash, the system should boot up without writing a dump.

  * RESTART indicates that when the power is switched on the system should attempt to write a crash dump to the dump file, and when complete the system will try to reboot itself automatically. 

So how do you determine the value without powering down?

$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$GETENV("AUTO_ACTION")